Beth Alyssa (neverwas) wrote, @ 2004-05-29 12:10:00

interesting timing
Antilapsarian - you know how we were talking about traveling and you mentioned you wanted to see Petra. . . ? Well, Josie, the gal in the peace corp, just went there.


So yesterday I visited Petra, the rose-rock city. And the question I
come away with is,what were they thinking? This is an entire city hewn into
rock walls...and only 30% is excavated so far. I mean, what makes a race of
people look at a rock wall and think: this'll be a good place to carve
a temple? Anyway, Petra was beautiful and sandy, and pretty dang
incredible. Even more beautiful was the EXERCISE my growing-fatter-everyday butt
got hiking for 6 hours. And staying in a hotel and hanging out with other
volunteers was also lovely.

My next paragraph is about the amazing bedouins who still squat in
Petra even though the government officially moved them to a town down the
road 5-20 years ago depending on who you ask. They now sell stuff in Petra
and try to get you to pay exhorbatant amounts to ride donkeys, horses, and
camels around (which Jackie and Lynn took them up on...I think I'm
going to save my camel riding adventures for Egypt and a longer ride). The
really amazing thing is they speak like 6 different languages, fluently. And
most have minimal schooling. I had several conversations that started in arabic,
threw in a little french, and ended in english. Even down to the six
year old girls selling you beautiful rocks (or occassionally giving you one
because you're nice and say hello in arabic). Yeah, so we hiked up to
this temple about 4km straight up a cliff and when we got to the top and had
taken our pictures, we were preparing to leave when we noticed the
bedouin who ran the booth at the top was jumping over the edge of the cliff
onto an outcrop, oh, about 3 ft. wide, and preparing to lay down for an
afternoon nap. Turns out he lives there most of the week. and sleeps there. On
the edge of a 1,000 ft. precipice. Yep.


i cannot believe the amazing experiences she's had. and i could not be over there doing what she does. all of her e-mails remind me of the many liberties we have here in america and what can be taken for granted everyday. they also remind me that there is a REAL world out there, totally different from our own.

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